WASHINGTON, D.C. – LCV Victory Fund and the Sierra Club Political Committee today launched a $350,000 television ad campaign hitting Florida House candidate David Jolly for being dangerously out-of-step with his district on climate change. The ad, “Ignore,” begins airing this week across the district and will run through Election Day on March 11th.

“David Jolly shouldn’t serve in Congress if he won’t acknowledge basic scientific facts,” said Gene Karpinski, President of LCV Victory Fund. “Climate change is already posing a threat to Pinellas, and we can’t afford to have David Jolly in Congress standing in the way of action.”

"In Pinellas, homes, businesses, and families are at risk from the extreme weather and rising seas fueled by climate change. Floridians deserve a leader in Congress who recognizes that threat and commits to take action, not someone like David Jolly who ignores that there is even a problem," said Bud Long, of the Sierra Club Florida Executive Committee.

The ad highlights Jolly’s recent comments denying that climate change is a significant enough problem to require action. Despite the fact that the scientific views on climate change are as solid as any public policy question will ever get, Jolly recently said, “I don't think the impact that humans have had on our climate is so dramatic that it requires a significant shift in federal policy.” Backup for the ad is available here.

Following Jolly’s comments, the Tampa Bay Timeseditorialized that Jolly was “wrong on climate change,” and that he and Libertarian candidate Lucas Overby “need to go back to their science books and learn some facts, not just talking points. And then they need to sign up to do something about it for the people they say they want to represent in Congress.”

This district is especially vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, and Florida researchers have found that the risk of flooding has doubled as summer Gulf tides rise. As the Tampa Bay Timeseditorialized, “Every member of Congress should have an interest in impacting a phenomenon that has such devastating potential for Americans and their way of life. But for congressional candidates hailing from a peninsular county in a peninsular state where high tides are already rising due to climate change, it should be an automatic top priority.”

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Paid for by LCV Victory Fund, 202-785-8683, and The Sierra Club Political Committee, sierraclub.org, and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.